About a month ago, it was published in the El Paso Times and in the El Paso Inc that the current owners of the Muir Building want to tear it down.  As you might have guessed this has already stirred the pot between historians and developers:

• Ep Times: Investors, retailer want remake two blocks. 
• El Paso Inc: Owners want to tear down Trost Building.

I had kind of forgotten about it, but as luck would have it I came across a blog post from the TimeTravelNow Blog.  It had a picture of the Muir building from about the 1950s:

This happy bustling scene is a sharp contrast to what the location looks like now:

It got me thinking a bit.  That contrast highlights the challenges that we’ll face in the coming years as we try to wrestle back vibrancy to our downtown after years of neglect.  We have had a few redevelopment shining stars, namely the Plaza Theater and the recent Mills Building remodels. My fear is that like the Muir building, much of our historic buildings are to far gone to salvage.

City council has moved forward with the historic decision to approve the destruction of city hall to make way for a AAA baseball stadium.  El Paso will soon be facing some serious development vs. cultural vs. design aesthetic choices to make.  Right next to City Hall are some significant historic buildings like the Scottish Rite Temple. There are many more behind it, in the Old San Francisco Historic District.  Will the historic guidelines the city has established for the area hold true? Does it apply to the design of the Stadium?

The great beast ASARCO has already been slain and the government is winding up its far reaching public corruption scandal. Downtown development is our next great battle royal and the factions are lining up to take sides.  Break out the popcorn, this will be a fun fight to watch.

Update (10/10/2012): the El Paso Inc has a updated article regarding this issue, check it out here: Preservation vs. Progress by Robert Grey

Update (11/13/2012): KVIA is reporting that the council has reversed an earlier decision and decided to let the building be demolished

I was driving down Mesa and happened to be passing by the Westside Church of Christ’s sign. It has always prominently displays some uplifting message.  Now, if you have lived on the Westside of El Paso, like me you will probably not remember a time when they’ve not done this. They are the original Twitter account for God.

I can recall from way back when while riding the bus to Moorhead Junior High, us hooligans often would try and twist the phrases into something funny or gross. Hilarity and disrespect would always ensue.  After a while you tend to dismiss them but its always amazing that as far as I know they never repeated themselves even on the sign itself. Here’s the same day’s flip side:

That takes some kind of skill but I guess with a Bible in hand, you can wrangle phrases all day long and not be duplicative. Personally, I’m more excited about the sign just down the street:

Charcoaler now has bacon! Hallelujah!

Ages ago I posted a pic of a painting I was working on.  Unfortunately, it met an untimely end… it got wet in my garage.  I scrapped it and focused on another project at the time, finishing up our demolished bathroom that had been idle for the greater part of a year since the February 2011 freeze.

Anyway finish bathroom, Christmas, New Years, my birthday, all of February 2012 and a quick trip to Lubbock passed by. Well I’m back on track and just recently started a new painting:

It’s moving along pretty quick and I already have a couple of ideas stacked up behind it.  I’m still photographing interesting/weird stuff that I come across and will continue to post those mini adventures as well.  Finally I brought back from the dead my previous Blogger blog, the j10chronicles about my J-10 Jeep truck and moved it to a wordpress site, the NEW j10chronicles.  Right now its just an archive of the previous site with a new theme. There is some activity going on with the truck that i’ll be updating soon.

Lots going on, stay classy El Paso!

Why? Because I like old signs.